1. Introduction

2. Who is Hard To Port?

3. Our Cause

4. Our MO

5. What has Hard To Port done so far?

5.1 A call for transparency - Hard To Port’s Whaler Watching Campaign

5.2 Making international headlines

5.3 Our work during the pandemic

6. Outlook

6.1 The tides are turning

6.2 Beginning of the end?

7. How You Can Help

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1. Introduction

Dear reader,

Thank you for taking the time to look into this crowdfunding appeal.

My name is Arne, and I am a passionate ocean conservationist and the founder of Hard To Port.

2. Who is Hard to Port?

Hard To Port is a registered, Germany-based non-profit marine conservation organisation. Since our founding in 2014, my organisation has devoted itself to bringing an end to the commercial whale hunt in Iceland.

3. Our cause

As of 2022, Iceland is one of three nations that still allow the commercial killing of the great whales. When I started my work with Hard To Port back in 2014, Icelandic whalers were hunting both fin whales – the second biggest animal on the planet – and the smaller common minke whales. In 2020, the hunt for common minke whales in coastal waters ended, thus making the fin whale hunt the last remaining part of this cruel spectacle. By bringing an end to the fin whale hunt, we will have achieved our campaign goal of ending all commercial whaling in Iceland.

4. Our MO

To achieve our goal, Hard To Port utilises a variety of approaches and strategies: investigative work, protests, public outreach campaigns, educational events (e.g., exhibitions, talks), etc. With many years of marine conservation activism experience, we know what it takes to run an effective campaign, namely creativity, continuity, passion, and patience.

5. What has Hard To Port done so far?

For the past nine years, we have run annual campaigns to raise awareness of the cruelty of the Icelandic commercial whale hunt. We have worked together with Icelandic supporters and alongside other conservation organisations. Through our work, Hard To Port has become one of the most dedicated and persistent advocates for whales in Iceland.

5.1 A call for transparency: Hard To Port’s “Whaler Watching” campaign

When we began our awareness-raising work, one of our first campaign targets was the huge information gap that had been instrumental in shielding the Iceland whaling industry from greater public scrutiny.

Until 2015, commercial whaling operations in Iceland took place largely outside the public eye. Information about the operations was mostly provided by those who had a vested interest in portraying these operations as “humane” and “efficient”. The public’s ability to scrutinise the accuracy of this portrayal was greatly hampered by the fact that whaling operations take place at sea, and there is no official mandate to provide independent surveillance of the operations.

In 2015, Hard To Port spearheaded efforts to fill this information gap by launching our “Whaler Watching” campaign in an attempt to monitor and document commercial whaling activities in Iceland independently. The idea behind this campaign was simple: If we want to have an unbiased and informed debate about the commercial whale hunt, then every aspect of this hunt must become visible. With this concept, we have enabled a critical look behind the curtain of this highly secretive industry.

Since 2015 we have refined our approach and have added new tools to our campaign toolkit every year. (As you can see in the image below, one of these tools is drones for aerial monitoring.)

5.2 Making international headlines

In 2018, our campaign revealed the tragic accidental killing of two rare hybrid whales - the crossbreed of fin and blue whales. These rare crossbreeds are not supposed to be killed, though without any proper reporting requirements in place, it is hard to tell how often such accidental killings happen.